Play All: A Bingewatcher's Notebook

Television and TV viewing are not what they once were - and that's a good thing, according to award-winning author and critic Clive James. Since serving as television columnist for the London Observer from 1972 to 1982, James has witnessed a radical change in content, format, and programming, and in the very manner in which television is watched. Here he examines this unique cultural revolution, providing a brilliant, eminently entertaining analysis of many of the medium's most notable 21st-century accomplishments.

Kind of Blue: A Political Memoir

Ken Clarke needs no introduction. One of the genuine 'Big Beasts' of the political scene, during his 46 years as the Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire he has been at the very heart of government under three prime ministers. He is a political obsessive with a personal hinterland, as well known as a Tory Wet with Europhile views as for his love of cricket, Nottingham Forest Football Club and jazz.

Latest Readings

In 2010,Clive James was diagnosed with terminal leukemia. Deciding that "if you don't know the exact moment when the lights will go out, you might as well read until they do," James moved his library to his house in Cambridge, where he would "live, read, and perhaps even write". James is the award-winning author of dozens of works of literary criticism, poetry, and history, and this volume contains his reflections on what may well be his last reading list.

Alan Bennett: Plays: BBC Radio Dramatisations

A unique collection of 12 full-cast BBC Radio productions of plays by Alan Bennett. The titles are: 40 Years On, A Visit from Miss Prothero, Say Something Happened, Kafka's Dick, Two in Torquay, The Madness of George III, The History Boys, An Englishman Abroad, A Question of Attribution, The Lady in the Van, Cocktail Sticks and The Last of the Sun.

Meet David Sedaris: Series Five

David Sedaris' remarkable ability to uncover the hilarious absurdity teeming just below the surface of everyday life is surpassed only by his ability to make his stories even more hilarious when he reads them aloud. This is the complete recording of Meet David Sedaris Series Five for Radio 4, and he reads essays from several of his books as well as many brand-new diary pieces and extras.

A Life in Questions

The witty, incisive and frank memoir of the best-selling author of The Victorians, Jeremy Paxman, whose career at the BBC included 25 years as the uncompromising presenter of Newsnight. Covering insights on politicians of every stamp over the last half century, reporting from war zones, the state of the BBC, the role of journalism in our political system and much more, Jeremy Paxman's long-awaited and candid memoir is packed with opinions and good humour on every page.

Hitch-22: A Memoir

In this long-awaited and candid memoir, Hitchens re-traces the footsteps of his life to date, from his childhood in Portsmouth, with his adoring, tragic mother and reserved Naval officer father; to his life in Washington DC, the base from which from he would launch fierce attacks on tyranny of all kinds. Along the way, he recalls the girls, boys and booze; the friendships and the feuds; the grand struggles and lost causes; and the mistakes and misgivings that have characterised his life.

Alan Bennett: Keeping On Keeping On: Diaries 2005-2014

Alan Bennett narrates the latest installment of his diaries, as heard on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Following on from Alan Bennett's best-selling, award-winning prose collections Writing Home and Untold Stories, Keeping On Keeping On is a third anthology featuring his unique observations, recollections and reminiscences. At its heart is his latest published collection of diaries.

The Elephant in the Room: A Journey into the Trump Campaign and the "Alt-Right"

'But Hillary is a known Luciferian,' he tried. 'She's not a known Luciferian,' I said. 'Well, yes and no,' he said. In The Elephant in the Room, Jon Ronson, the New York Times best-selling author of The Psychopath Test, Them and So You've Been Publicly Shamed, travels to Cleveland at the height of summer to witness the Republican National Convention.

Decline and Fall

Expelled from Oxford for indecent behaviour, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly unsurprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze. As the farce unfolds and the young run riot, no one is safe, least of all Paul.

The Elements of Eloquence

In an age unhealthily obsessed with substance, this is a book on the importance of pure style, from the best-selling author of The Etymologicon and The Horologicon. From classic poetry to pop lyrics and from the King James Bible to advertising slogans, Mark Forsyth explains the secrets that make a phrase - such as 'Tiger, Tiger, burning bright', or 'To be or not to be' - memorable. In his inimitably entertaining and witty style he takes apart famous lines and shows how you, too, can write like Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde.

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

In 1957, four years before his death, Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist, began writing his life story. But what started as an exercise in autobiography soon morphed into an altogether more profound undertaking.

Shakespeare: The World as a Stage

Shakespeare's life, despite the scrutiny of generations of biographers and scholars, is still a thicket of myths and traditions, some preposterous, some conflicting, arranged around the few scant facts known about the Bard: from his birth in Stratford to the bequest of his second best bed to his wife when he died.

Deep Thought: 42 Fantastic Quotes That Define Philosphy

As Douglas Adams points out, if there is no final answer to the question "what is the meaning of life?" 42 is as good or bad an answer as any other. Indeed, 42 quotes might be even better! Gary Cox guides us through 42 of the most misunderstood, misquoted, provocative, and significant quotes in the history of philosophy, providing witty and compelling commentary along the way.

The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

A quirky, entertaining and thought-provoking tour of the unexpected connections between words, read by Simon Shepherd. What is the actual connection between disgruntled and gruntled? What links church organs to organised crime, California to the Caliphate, or brackets to codpieces? The Etymologicon springs from Mark Forsyth's Inky Fool blog on the strange connections between words.

Thin Air

In 1935 young medic Stephen Pearce travels to India to join an expedition with his brother, Kits. The elite team of five will climb Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain and one of mountaineering's biggest killers. No one has scaled it before, and they are, quite literally, following in the footsteps of one of the most famous mountain disasters of all time - the 1907 Lyell expedition. Five men lost their lives back then, overcome by the atrocious weather, misfortune and mountain sickness at such high altitudes.

The Noise of Time

In May 1937, a man in his early 30s waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is no use to him now, and few who are taken to the Big House ever return.

Publisher's Summary

"In this book can be heard the merest edge of an enormous conversation. As they never were in life, we can imagine the speakers all gathered in some vast room, wearing name tags in case they don't recognize each other (although some recognize each other all too well, and avoid contact).

"My heroes and heroines are here. The reader will recognize some of their names, while other names will be more obscure. My intellectual betes noires are here too, and the same division might apply."

An almanac combining a comprehensive survey of modern culture with an annotated index of who-was-who and what-was-what, Cultural Amnesia is Clive James' unique take on the places and the faces that shaped the 20th century.

From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics, and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.

What the Critics Say

"Clever, and funny....a wonderful book for a long afternoon in a left-bank cafe, or a transatlantic plane ride." (The Observer)"On virtually every page, there is an arresting sentence, witty or profound." (Mail on Sunday)"It's clever, contentious and funny (like its author). His scope is impressive." (Guardian)

Cultural Amnesia is a ?tour de force? in writing terms but more like a ?tour de France? when reading, especially if you try to do the thing in one go. Using Wikipedia as a study aid I felt like I was in the ring with Sonny Liston who by chapter three had me on the canvas. In one of his earlier books, Fame in the 20th century, Clive James gave an excellent outline of how the famous shaped our world. In Cultural Amnesia he has broadened and deepened these ideas. I found it is accessible only in that he uses words I understand but the concepts saw me using a whiteboard and ?post it? notes. His thoughts criss-cross time and space giving a glimpse of James?s lifetimes reading and reasoning. This can be disconcerting if like me you are thinly read and prone to prejudice. However it is so worth persevering as there is much to learn, many laughs and a constant striving for context. In ?Fame? James ends by making the point that we need these people as we need a map, to help find our way, yet all maps are an over simplification. I would argue that we need Clive himself to help us find our way as Cultural Amnesia changes that scale from glimpse to insight. I have listened to and read the book and am changed for the experience. Had there been a T Shirt I?d be wearing it.

I find Clive James' books quite difficult to read. His knowledge is so great and his reading so wide that I think he finds it difficult to judge what to leave out - and hence it is very hard to follow his train of thought as he jumps all over the place, throwing out, as it were, widely drawn allusions and references.

However, when he reads his own stuff, it becomes much clearer to me - dont ask me why. He has an interesting voice, a good conversational style of delivery and his dry humour keeps coming through. It is much easier to get the point.

I agree with the previous reviewer, though, that this is a book to dip into rather than read all the way through. I listened to it over a few weeks a section at a time but you are rather bound by the order of the book in an audio version (defined break points would have made this easier). Best thing is to have the book and the audio - which is the course I've followed.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the audiobook - and it interested me enough to buy the written version which is good stuff too.

Clive James once complained that he had spent too much time studying at Cambridge while people like Germaine Greer were partying. His time was not wasted... Like his wireless essays on Radio Four his style has a lightness of touch for historical giants and literarati known and unknown. Like harold Bloom he makes you want to read some of the literature referred to or get to know more about some of the topics, such as the Viennese intellectual scene in the 20's and 30's which he covers. Where I am familiar with his subjects he seems to score a bullseye...If he had not wasted so much time on TV he could have done more but perhaps I would not have bothered to listen to this informative and entertaining piece.

The download is one continuous file - 6 hours long. No bookmarks or chapters. The book is written in an alphabetical order and allows you to jump to where you need and this is much more useful. While its not a reference book your enjoyment will be enhanced by being able to jump to appropriate sections. The Times has some filmed excerpts of chapters, and worth viewing for a taster.

What made the experience of listening to Cultural Amnesia the most enjoyable?

Wonderful, an education, illuminating - and I very much enjoyed the reading of this by Clive James. Gave me loads to think about, disagreed with a number of points, but definitely one i'll be returning to...

Any additional comments?

In a book like this, not having only chapter numbers not who the subject of each chapter is, is a problem as this is a book I'd like to return to quite a bit.

If you are a fan of Clive James you will want this summation of a lifetime's reading and thinking. A brilliant writer who can think outside the box of life, he has the wit, nerve, and genius to understand complex ideas and then pass on his knowledge in a form we ordinary mortals can - sometimes, anyway - understand. He is one of the few writers who can come up with a memorable review, an unforgettable poem, a knockout novel, and a stunning memoir. Which prompted the New Yorker to declare that Clive James is a brilliant bunch of guys. Yes, you can tell, I'm a bit of a CJ worshipper. Every home should have a copy of this extraordinary book, in any format you fancy. But do yourself a favour by buying it in hardback as well. It is going to be handled a lot, and you don't want it to fall to bits at a crucial moment. It is unique and wise in so many areas.

... at least then I'd have forgotten this shockingly pretentious tosh. Mr. James knows or has met everyone and is desperate for us to know that that is the case. Own trumpets are blown, chests are puffed out with importance, and all of it without the least guilt or self-consciousness.

I'm usually not a big fan of authors' narration of their own work-I usually prefer more professional readings- but Clive James' reading of his own work was excellent and very enjoyable. I found the book fascinating from the preface right through the last essay. I only wish the version were unabridged.

The essays were both thought-provoking and insightful. They have already sent me back to many of the texts discussed with enhanced understanding and appetite.

This was a fascinating addition to my audio library and so engaging I never missed a beat though driving for hours at a time on a long commute.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Michele P.

Issaquah. WA

06/02/09

Overall

"I wish it were unabridged"

I don't usually listen to unabridged texts, so this was a happy accident. Clive James is an excellent reader of his own work. His thought provoking commentary has broadened my literary and cultural horizons. I wish I could have heard all of it.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Ryan B.

11/02/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"A great treasure"

This book is a wonderful, entertaining collection of descriptions of a collection. I didn't know all the people described. Along the way I enjoyed learning a hell of a lot even about the ones I thought I did know. Clive James is the master narrator. He connects stories, intertwines histories and has an amazing insight into the abundance of literary styles and influences.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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